Are You Avoiding Succession Planning?

Lots of baby boomers are avoiding succession planning. One can only assume that at least some of them are lawyers!

So, for today’s tip, I’ll give you 5 good reasons to stop procrastinating:

1. Proactively planning for succession allows you to minimize the risk of having to deal with it in crisis mode, should you decide to retire earlier than expected.
2. It takes time to develop a thorough succession plan.
3. It may take longer than you expect to implement your succession plan. So, you will want to pad projections for training, mentoring and hiring, in case things don’t go as planned.
4. Taking action will stop your looming retirement from being a negative weight in the back of your mind. Avoiding it doesn’t, necessarily, mean that you’re not thinking about it.
5. You will have a better chance of keeping your most talented individuals, if you tell them long in advance that this opportunity is coming their way.

You don’t have to retire any earlier than you would like, just because you’re working on a succession plan. If you love working, you can build the opportunity to have continuity with your job (in some capacity) into your succession plan.

So, instead of avoiding your succession plan, think about applying the same degree of professionalism to this exercise as you would, and do, with everything else in your practice.

You may even be able to sleep better knowing this is in the works… as often happens when procrastinating something big finally comes to an end!

—

For reading related to succession planning, see these past articles on SlawTips:

• And the Numbers Show… (Part 1)
• What Are You Going to Do in Your Retirement?

Also, see the following articles by Sandra Bekhor at Toronto Marketing Blog:

• Statistics on Small Business Succession Planning
• Succession Planning Resource
• Setting the stage for a business retreat

– Sandra Bekhor, Toronto